Publishers Weekly
★ 02/26/2018
Set in 1921, Downing’s fitting conclusion to his superior quartet of WWI-era spy thrillers (after 2017’s Lenin’s Roller Coaster) finds series lead Jack McColl behind bars after he punched a London police constable for insulting an injured war veteran. Jack’s actions in rushing the comatose policeman to the hospital persuaded the judge to sentence him more leniently, but Jack still faces a seven-year stretch. He’s offered a reprieve by his old handler, Secret Service chief Mansfield Cumming, who makes Jack a deal: he’ll get him out of jail if he agrees to travel to Russia to figure out what MI5 is up to. “Five” has had covert contact with an Indian delegation that just settled a trade deal with Russia but has refused to share with Cumming what they’re planning. Jack takes the deal and ends up crossing paths with both an old love and an old foe as he races to derail a murder plot that could have catastrophic geopolitical consequences. As always, Downing’s intelligently constructed characters complement a plausible and pulse-pounding plotline. Agent: Charlie Viney, Viney Agency. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
A LitHub Most Anticipated Crime, Mystery, and Thriller Title of 2018
A CrimeReads Best Espionage Novel of 2018
Praise for The Dark Clouds Shining
"Downing is a meticulous researcher of the period . . . A joy of reading both Downing and Kerr is being transported back to a place and time. I certainly wouldn’t want to ride in a Russian tank today, but in a fantasy I might."
—Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
"Intelligent and exhilarating."
—The Seattle Times
"Downing is a master at recreating historical and political detail. People, places, clothing, and manners are so accurately depicted the reader comes to feel as if they were living in the early 1920s."
—Deadly Pleasures Magazine
"For years now, Downing’s historical espionage novels have been some of the most transporting stories around, full of finely observed everyday details that make the reader feel as though they’re at the very center of world historical events and yet also in a familiar, lived-in space."
—CrimeReads
"[A] fitting conclusion to [Downing's] superior quartet of WWI-era spy thrillers . . . As always, Downing’s intelligently constructed characters complement a plausible and pulse-pounding plotline."
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Ending his series on a perfect tonic chord, Downing masterfully combines high adventure, Doctor Zhivago–caliber romance, and just the right amount of Graham Greene ambiguity."
—Booklist, Starred Review
Praise for the Jack McColl novels
“[Downing] is a master at bringing the past to life through the careful and often loving observation of even minor players and through the artful deployment of specific detail. In addition, Jack McColl’s debut has a zest, an exoticism and a joie de vivre well-suited to an era when best sellers were being written by Zane Grey, suffragettes were demanding the vote, and opium parlors were a readily accessible temptation.”
—The Wall Street Journal
"[A] splendid saga of espionage during the Great War . . . Downing is a master of action . . . [He] also slips in plenty of historical reality—women’s suffrage, revolutionary hopes, progressive politics, Irish nationalism—without ever losing sight of the story."
—The Globe and Mail
“Engrossing . . . Comparisons to W. Somerset Maugham’s classic stories about Ashenden, another gentleman spy, are well deserved.”
—The Seattle Times
“Downing reaffirms his place as one of the finest espionage writers with this engaging historical thriller.”
—Bruce Tierney, BookPage, Top Pick in Mystery
“A brilliant historical portrait and a captivating love story to boot. A remarkably engaging world tour of pre–World War One espionage featuring an honorable protagonist begging for a long series.”
—Lyndsay Faye, author of The Fatal Flame
“Moves along briskly and offers interesting facts about events now a century past.
It’s always entertaining.”
—The Washington Post
